Burnout and spirituality among nurses: A scoping review

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Objective:To investigate the relationship between spirituality / religiousness and Burnout Syndrome innurses, as well as to examine the current evidence for spiritual/religious interventions to alleviate theirsymptoms.Data sources:A scoping review was conducted using CINAHL, SCOPUS, Web of Science, Pubmed databases,and grey literature, between January and July 2020.Study selection:Two researchers performed the searches with a 95% agreement rate for the inclusion andexclusion of the studies. Both quantitative and qualitative studies published in peer-reviewed journals, usingSpanish, Portuguese or English language were included. Restriction on publication date was not applied.Data Extraction:A total of 1143 articles were identified and 18 were included in thefinal analysis. Qualityassessment was performed, following CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA and COREQ guidelines. Finally, the follow-ing data were extracted: authors, year, country, study design and sample characteristics, purpose of thestudy, and majorfindings.Data synthesis:The results of the present review show that spirituality / religiousness is a common strategyused by nurses when coping with stress and burnout. Most studies reveal that spiritual and religious beliefsare correlated with lower levels of burnout, exhaustion and depersonalization in different settings. Neverthe-less, two studies have not found any relationship and one study has found worse outcomes.Conclusions:There is a lack of experimental studies trying to examine if spiritual interventions could modifyburnout levels in clinical practice. Health managers should be aware of the spirituality / religiousness of theirnurses and provide the appropriate spiritual support.

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